[S1E2] To Market, To Market
Pierce and McIntyre are in the OR operating on a two star general. As the operation progresses, the general becomes shocky. Hawkeye orders the plasma to be pushed in and for hydrocortisone. The nurse tells him that they are out, and when told to get another one, she informs him there is no more. After the session, Pierce and McIntyre head over to supply wanting to know why the hydrocortisone wasn't ordered for the latest shipment. Major Houlihan says she did the requisition and that she ordered the hydrocortisone. Major Burns comes in and adds that it, along with half of all the rest of the supplies, was hijacked by the black market. Burns then informs them that there is a truck of supplies waiting to be unloaded outside.
[S1E2] To Market, to Market
Radar finds the name of a black marketeer, Charlie Lee, who Pierce and McIntyre go to see in Seoul. Right after entering his building, they decide to go back outside and hire somebody to look after the Jeep. By the time they get there, about ten seconds after leaving, the Jeep has already been stripped to the frame. They meet Charlie Lee and ask him about hydrocortisone. He says that he has a box and that it costs $10,000. After a series of offers which are no match for what Charlie already has or can beat, they offer to trade the hydrocortisone for Blake's desk.
Thieves and blackmarketeers hold up a truck load of medical supplies for the 4077, thus rendering them in desperate need of hydrocortisone. In retaliation, Hawkeye and Trapper meet with a notorious black marketeer, hoping to get some replacements. When they realize they have nothing reasonable to trade with him, they go to drastic measures to get what they need.[1][2][3][4][5]
While operating on a general, Hawkeye discovers that the hospital is out of hydrocortisone. He and Trapper later learn that it has been stolen by black marketeers, along with half of the other medical supplies and an entire replacement shipment. When they go to Henry's office to complain, they find him showing off a newly acquired, 100-year-old oak desk. Henry is too nervous to call General Hammond and demand action, so Hawkeye makes the call for him; however, Hammond refuses Henry's request for a fresh shipment.
Radar puts the doctors in touch with a black marketeer, Charlie Lee, who asks $10,000 for a load of hydrocortisone he has in stock. The price is too high for Hawkeye and Trapper, so they offer to trade for Henry's desk. Charlie later visits the 4077th, dressed as a South Korean general, in order to examine the desk. He agrees to the trade, on the condition that the desk must be ready to load onto a truck early the next morning; if it is not, he will sell the hydrocortisone to another buyer.
Ed Coyne: Hi, welcome to Season 1, Episode #2 of Sprott Gold Talk. I am your host, Ed Coyne, Senior Managing Director at Sprott Asset Management. Today, I've asked John Hathaway, Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager of Sprott Gold Equity Fund, to join me to talk about another level of gold. In Episode #1, we talked about the physical gold market and how to allocate to that space, and how to make physical gold a productive asset.
Today, with John Hathaway, we will take a deeper dive into the gold equity story, particularly given the most recent sell-off we've seen over the last month. Let's start with first the physical market. We've had a bit of a sell-off here in the last couple of months. John, what has been going on in the physical gold market over the last four to six months?
Ed Coyne: Let's touch on that briefly. Many investors, rightly or wrongly, think about returns on a quarter-to-quarter basis. As we've seen over multiple market cycles, gold's is best viewed as a decade-to-decade type of allocation. Clearly, the physical market is something you want to own as a core allocation, as a way to diversify your portfolio. And there are times when you want to consider gold equities, and at Sprott, we believe that right now is one of those times. In your view, what should an investor be looking for in the coming quarters as they look to allocate capital to the gold miners?
We are in a world of overvalued securities, both bonds and stocks. I wrote a paper at the beginning of this year showing that the valuation of the S&P 500 was in the 100 percentile of all historical experience [see One of the Greatest Bubbles in History]. And this can go on for a bit. But it would be hard not to say that the investment consensus is priced for perfection and that we'll probably get less than perfection. Gold mining stocks, which have had a correction going back to last August, have come down to valuation levels where if the broader stock market were to sell off, which I think is a reasonable bet, you would probably have much less risk in gold mining stocks.
Again, if the stock market were to sell off, it seems that it would be bullish for gold because investors would look for defensive strategies to protect capital. Of course, both gold bullion and gold mining stocks, by extension, are part of that defensive strategy. Let's not forget that the group has a current yield higher than the S&P 500 Index [above 1.5% as of 12/31/2020]. And valuations are about 50% of what you can get in the S&P 500 if you look at several different valuation metrics. So you have value going for you, you have contrary thinking going for you, and you have a very good possibility that the gold price correction, if it hasn't already, will very soon run its course. We believe that we could see another leg up in the gold price that takes us to new highs, which I think would inject a tremendous amount of buying into this sector.
Ed Coyne: It looks like we have some wind in our sails from a global narrative, effectively a hangover effect from the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears to me that not only does the physical gold market make sense in diversifying a portfolio, but today an opportunistic allocation to gold equities should be considered when looking to potentially add some total return to investment portfolios.
The Audi quattro Sport E2 Swb is an evolution of the quattro Sport. Extraordinarily fast with exceptional driving dynamics, the Quattro excelled in international rallying and won the manufacturers' championship for Audi in 1982 and 84 and the drivers' championship in 1983 and 84. But his greatest legacy is to have proved the benefits of all-wheel drive for the private vehicle industry. Since then, Audi has put its Quattro four-wheel drive system into practice on many other models that have made a significant contribution to the brand's success on the international market. A Sport version of the Quattro was presented in the autumn of 1983. Designed as a homologation version for Group B in rally racing, the Sport was built on a shortened platform and received a new all-alloy lighter version of the five-cylinder. In addition to the shorter wheelbase, the Sport was immediately distinguished by its less inclined windscreen (required by drivers to reduce the reflection of on-board instruments on the inside), wider wheel wells and a wider climb.
And It can be seen clearly when I asked a room full of people to make the experience to choose numerous adjectives that defined luxury. On over a hundred adjectives one was not there : technology. And it's surprising because it is the technology itself which has produced and still is producing what makes today's society as fascinating and innovative, disruptive and evolutive. Decades ago the richest 1% were also the first to have had cars, phones or yet fridges. Those same people getting the first ever new market products are not the richest but called the innovators and early adopters. It has nothing to do with money - hence the theory that luxury is not necessarily - only - about money anymore. Let me get into details,
John Emshwiller: You're listening to season one of Bad Bets. The story of Enron's collapse. This is episode two, The Visionary. Enron was a pretty state outfit back in 1985 when it was created. It moved gas around the country to power cities. It was a kind of company we at the Wall Street Journal called DBI, dull but important. That all changed one day when Jeff Skilling walked through Enron's doors.At the time, Skilling was a young hotshot consultant working for McKinsey, a prominent consulting firm. He pitched a brand new idea to Enron in 1987, something so big, it not only changed the company, but the entire energy sector. It was called the "gas bank." The country was deregulating natural gas, basically letting the market set the price. And Skilling saw an opportunity for Enron to start making money as a middleman.
Rebecca Smith: So it wasn't just a plain vanilla business anymore. The idea of course was that, if you open up these markets, you'll have more competitors for everything, for moving gas, and for using gas, that these prices will go down.
John Emshwiller: Enron used this gas bank middleman model to trade a lot of things. They entered all kinds of other markets, like electricity, paper, and eventually broadband. Skilling ran the whole trading operation. It became the biggest part of the company.
John Emshwiller: He became a kind of wunderkind, the king with the golden touch. By 1997, only seven years after joining Enron, Skilling became president and chief operating officer, second in power only to CEO Ken Lay. And the success of the trading business gave Skilling clout and the leverage to pitch more ideas. In 1999, Skilling and his team delivered another home run, ratcheting up the speed and ease of trades.Up to that point, trading commodities like gas happened almost entirely over the phone. You had to dial up a number, wait till someone answered, and then offer a price, and perhaps haggle, maybe haggle a lot. Precious minutes went by, market forces were changing during the call. It was to say the least, an imperfect process.Skilling thought the internet could compress that time to seconds. So, Enron built an online platform where trades could be done in seconds. And best of all, all that business went through Enron. They called it Enron Online, and its launch went gangbusters. Skilling's boss Ken Lay, was thrilled. 041b061a72